Making the case with data: How a regional nonprofit supports community health with County Health Rankings & Roadmaps resources

In western Massachusetts, the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts (PHIWM) is a trusted leader in using data to improve community health. Whether it's through reports, training or local partnerships, PHIWM has been helping people understand what shapes health, and how to create healthier, more equitable communities. “Our work depends on accessible, reliable data,” said PHIWM Executive Director Jessica Collins. For years, PHIWM has relied on County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) as a crucial source of data and frameworks to make the case for meaningful change.

CHR&R provides data on more than 80 measures of health for nearly every U.S. county. The measures cover a wide range of community conditions — from access to healthy food and safe housing to education levels and income. This information helps communities understand how social and economic factors, health infrastructure, and the physical environment influence how long and how well people live.

According to Dr. Kathleen Szegda, the former Senior Director of Community Research and Evaluation at PHIWM, the CHR&R data “has been very important for us.” She explained, “We can’t get some of this data anywhere else. CHR&R compiles it in such a way that makes it easy to access.”

PHIWM leads Community Health Needs Assessments (CHNAs) for 11 hospital systems across western Massachusetts in some of the most rural areas of the state. These assessments, conducted every three years, identify the most pressing health issues in the four counties of western Massachusetts and help guide investment decisions. CHR&R data is foundational to this work, providing local, state, and national comparisons across key health factors. “Our CHNAs aim to understand need and potential actions for change—we wouldn’t have as complete a picture without CHR&R. It would be a gap in the information we have,” said Szegda.

CHR&R’s easy-to-access, evidence-based data is a key source in these reports and others, including a 2023 report on gender equity. It helps PHIWM identify trends, highlight health gaps, characterize disparities and make strong, data-backed recommendations for change. “The fact that we can get the data disaggregated in some cases is very important to our work to help characterize needs and identify potential solutions to inequities,” Szegda added.

The CHR&R data also plays a key role in educating decision-makers. Each year, PHIWM organizes events with community organizations, health departments, hospitals, and legislators to highlight issues they have been working on, and these events include CHR&R’s annually updated data with yearly changes and trends. They use CHR&R data to spotlight areas of need and advocate for resources. “We use the model and data to help our legislators understand the need for more resources,” Szegda explained. Collins added, “The maps provide a quick, clear snapshot of how conditions vary county by county, making it easy for communities and decision-makers to see where the greatest needs are and take action.” In Hampden County, which often fares worse than the average county in Massachusetts, this outreach work using CHR&R data has been essential in raising awareness, building partnerships, and advocating for resources. 

Although PHIWM uses other data tools, such as the Massachusetts state-level data portal, CHR&R remains essential — especially because the state tool pulls some of its data from CHR&R. If CHR&R data disappeared, it would leave a significant gap. “We don’t have relationships with the national datasets, meaning we don’t have Memos of Understanding to share data,” said Szegda. “If we had to collect that data ourselves, we couldn’t do it without funding.”

In short, CHR&R data helps PHIWM do what it does best: provide trusted, evidence-informed guidance for improving health and equity in western Massachusetts. View your county or state snapshot to explore health-related data.